June 12, 2006

REPORT TO GENERAL COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: Environmental Management Plan Final Report - Phase One

CONTACT/AUTHOR: Victoria McGrath, Manager, Environmental Leadership

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the staff report entitled “Environmental Management Plan Final Report – Phase One” dated May 23, 2006, be received;

AND THAT staff, in conjunction with the staff technical advisory committee, establish a workshop with Council members to discuss the Environmental Management Plan.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to update Council on the recommendations from the Environmental Management Plan Phase One process, to seek Council’s endorsement of the recommendations and to seek Council’s approval to proceed with the process necessary to implement the recommendations of the Environmental Management Plan. In addition, this report seeks Council’s endorsement to hire a consultant in order for staff to move forward on Phase Two, implementing the recommendations of the Environmental Management Plan final report.

BACKGROUND:

In 2004, Council approved $100,000 for an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to help the Town prioritize environmental goals and commitments, promote interdepartmental collaboration and coordinate environmental initiatives and projects. A staff technical advisory committee (TAC) made up of representatives from each commission, was established to oversee the selection of the consultant and provide input into the EMP study process.

In 2005, CH2M Hill was retained to develop the EMP. The consultant held a workshop and conducted a survey with staff and members of Council, worked with the staff TAC and developed the EMP based on their experiences with other municipalities and the experiences of six benchmarking communities that helped to guide the EMP process.

In January 2006, CH2M Hill presented the TAC with a draft EMP report for review and comment. The TAC provided comments and a final report was prepared and presented in April 2006. This report is attached as Appendix 1.

OPTIONS/ DISCUSSION:

What is an Environmental Management Plan?

The EMP is a strategic, corporate document that:

• Sets up a framework for coordinating and directing municipal actions

• Identifies municipal environmental initiatives and goals in the long and short term

• Will assist in achieving better and new environmental practices in the future

The EMP establishes a process to develop and implement cross-commission environmental programs and initiatives. The EMP also includes an implementation framework, currently focused on internal, corporate operations that can be expanded to engage the community in a community sustainability plan, which is a necessary next step to support the federal gas tax. The EMP will support new practices, partnerships, and initiatives to advance and encourage environmental leadership. Active participation by staff across the municipality will be needed for the EMP to succeed.

EMP Objectives

The objectives of the EMP process was to:

• Help the Town establish short and long term corporate environmental priorities

• Promote interdepartmental collaboration

• Coordinate environmental management

The EMP final report achieves these objectives by making recommendations on governance, vision and environmental priorities to help the Town of Markham move forward. Once these recommendations are in place, the process of implementing, measuring, monitoring and reporting can evolve in the next phase of the EMP, the implementation phase.

Existing Condition (Where We Are Today)

The Town of Markham is already recognized as an environmental leader and has, over the years, adopted many policies and programs which contain environmentally sustainable elements. Some of these include:

• Smog Alert Response Plan

• Green Fleet

• Markham Energy Conservation Office

• Rouge Park Official Plan Process

• Environmental Policy framework

• Small Streams Study and implementation

• Update of storm water management criteria and guidelines

• Three Stream implementation

• Green Procurement Policy

• Paperless Agenda

• Pesticide Free Parks Pilot

The Town has not, to date, drawn these initiatives together in a comprehensive way to enhance environmental sustainability. There is no all-encompassing framework to guide sustainability priorities in the Town and no overall process to systematically monitor and improve Markham’s progress towards becoming a more sustainable community.

By reviewing the projects and initiatives currently underway in Markham and talking with Council and staff, the consultant developed a gap analysis to examine how the Town can improve its coordination and integration and where these improvements can best be made to achieve improved environmental management.

Gap Analysis

The gap analysis showed that the Town of Markham is strong in its commitment to the environment and has a motivated Council and staff to support environmental initiatives. The gap analysis also revealed the challenges facing the Town in improving its environmental management.

The gap analysis identified the following challenges:

• Centralized coordination is needed and desired between Council and staff, between commissions and interdepartmentally

• A Town vision or environmental policy framework related to priority setting for environmental initiatives is needed

• Markham needs to establish a performance measures process, a reporting process and a monitoring process that reflects a life cycle analysis around environmental initiatives

In order to meet these challenges, the consultant identified that a staff “champion” would help to ensure a consistent, coordinated approach to implementing the EMP. Also, the consultant recognized that more coordinated decision making would benefit Council and staff and that the Town would improve its environmental performance by linking environmental priority-setting with the annual budget planning process.

The six benchmarking communities (Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Calgary, Regional District of Vancouver and Newcastle, UK) reviewed by the consultant through the EMP process met their “gaps” or challenges by setting and championing environmental priorities at the corporate level, through visioning sessions or corporate policy commitments. In order to support this, a central office or business unit was established to support program development and implementation.

Environmental Priorities

The following environmental priority “themes” were established by the consultant based on the gap analysis and benchmarking summary:

• Air

• Land and Biodiversity

• Water

• Resources and People

Within these themes are recommended priority actions or early success opportunities, to provide an early implementation strategy for the Town. An example of one air priority recommended by the EMP final report is for the Town to complete the milestones under the FCM Partners for Climate Protection (FCM PCP) agreement. The Town of Markham is currently a member of the FCM PCP, however, has not, to date moved forward on implementing the program. Implementing this priority project will be an early success for the Town and represents an achievable goal to improve air quality and reduce the Town’s climate change impacts.

Establishing broad environmental “themes” will help to guide the implementation process by helping staff to understand how to achieve performance measures or targets associated with their departments’ environmental initiatives.

Recommendations from the EMP Phase One process Final report

In order to move forward with implementing the EMP and ensuring continuous improvement and success, the consultant considered what the benchmarking communities modeled when establishing their environmental management processes. The following examples are taken from the benchmarking communities:

• In 1992, the Mayor of the City of Chicago convened an environmental initiatives committee to coordinate city-wide environmental initiatives;

• In the City of Seattle, environmental policies are fully endorsed by the Mayor and Council and an Office of Environmental Sustainability was established to coordinate these initiatives, and;

• The executive leadership team of the City of Calgary has endorsed their EMS, which is administered by the Environmental Management Unit

The success of the EMP depends on enhancing communications, governance and continuity between Council and staff. In keeping with the leadership of the benchmarking communities, the following three recommendations will help to ensure the success of the Markham EMP:

1. Establish Environmental Sustainability Office within the Community and Fire Services Commission, that:

• Maintains the vision of the EMP/implementation

• Enhances corporate coordination to achieve EMP implementation

• Galvanizes support from the staff Technical Advisory Committee, senior management, CCC and Council

• Works to establish governance of the EMP and participates on Council environmental committees

• Works with other commissions to integrates sustainability and environmental values into Town of Markham plans, programs and policies (e.g. Strategic Plan, Community Sustainability Plan, Official Plan Review) thereby strengthening corporate policy development and maintaining the corporate focus

• Provides Environmental Intergovernmental Relations related to implementation of EMP (e.g. FCM Partners for Climate Protection, ICLEI, MOE, EC, compliance)

• Undertakes civic engagement, promotion and public education (particularly once the EMP moves into a community sustainability plan and within the strategic planning exercises)

The Environmental Sustainability Office could be managed by the existing staff EMP project manager thereby reallocating existing staff within the environmental portfolio. This would alleviate any staffing or resource costs. The resulting coordinating presence would help to ensure implementation of the EMP and contribute to the EMPs continual improvement.

2. Establish an environmental standing committee of Council (the Environmental Sustainability Committee) under the General Committee:

• EMP oversight at the Council level would help to coordinate and streamline issues, policies and initiatives

• EMC would ensure a coordinated approach to environmental issues and the EMP

• EMC would provide a one-window approach to help with prioritization of EMP initiatives, performance measures and reporting

The intent of establishing the Environmental Sustainability Committee under the General Committee would be to dissolve all existing environmental subcommittees of Council, with the exception of the Markham Conservation Committee. As needed, subcommittees or task forces could be established under the Environmental Sustainability Committee. These subcommittees or task forces, including the Markham Conservation Committee, would be tasked with a work plan and time line to ensure environmental priorities and initiatives were continuously being implemented, measured and monitored.

3. Establish staff EMP implementation team (TAC) to implement the EMP:

• Staff from each commission will coordinate and support EMP implementation cross-corporately

• Would require the support of senior management to allow the staff time and resources to ensure the EMP becomes a way of work

• Part-time resources also required from Legal Services, Clerks, HR, Corporate Communications, and task managers, as needed

The staff EMP implementation team would be critical to ensure cross-commission activities and initiatives, selecting priority areas for implementation and securing funding and resources for successful implementation of the EMP.

Phase Two: Implementation

The process for implementing the EMP final report recommendations is laid out in a work plan within the EMP document and includes the following next steps:

• Review and endorse roles and responsibilities

• Select priorities for implementation within each commission

• Develop an environmental priorities framework that lays out the actions required to implement (process mapping)

• Set goals, objectives and metrics

• Develop action plan

In order to ensure that the Town is establishing the most successful implementation process based on measurable results, it is recommended that a consultant be retained to facilitate an initial brain-storming session with staff and Council members and assist in the preparation of a process for successfully implementing the EMP.

Council Support

To successfully advance sustainability in a coordinated way, support for EMP implementation would be needed from Council and senior management. The following key areas would be supported by Council:

• Review EMP performance annually and make recommendations on EMP management

• Establish the Environmental Sustainability Committee

• Demonstrate leadership and commitment to support the EMP

• Annually perform an environmental scan with the Environmental Sustainability Office

• Review the progress of the EMP in the context of the Strategic Plan and annual priorities

Senior Management Support

The support of the senior management group is also instrumental to the success of the EMP. Senior decision makers need to be engaged in the EMP to ensure cross-corporate collaboration, training and implementation. To achieve this, the EMP would need to be part of each commission’s key performance indicators and built into business unit profiles as well as performance plans for staff.

Phase Three: Measuring, Monitoring and Reporting on the EMP

The following “Phase Three” steps are suggested to begin the process of measuring, monitoring and reporting on the success and challenges of implementing the EMP:

• Funding – research and coordinate external funding to support programs and initiatives; align EMP to budget cycle to ensure resources for implementation

• Performance Measures – build on the Town’s Performance Measures Documents, develop indicators and performance measures

• Monitoring and Reporting – establish reporting process to Council and community - annual report card, strategic plan, community sustainability plan

• Promotion, education, training – work towards recognizing the EMP as a way of work, where staff feel a sense of responsibility for the EMP and are empowered with skills and knowledge to implement the plan

CONCLUSION:

The Environmental Management Plan is the Town’s environmental road map for the future. It will set up the framework for coordinating and directing municipal actions and a reporting process to assist in achieving new and advanced municipal environmental practises in the future. To successfully move forward with implementing the EMP, a cooperative approach is imperative by all Commissions of the Corporation to participate, be actively involved and contribute to this important strategic initiative throughout its implementation

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The EMP works to achieve the community vision and corporate goals around environmental focus established in the Town of Markham’s strategic plan, Engage 21^st Century Markham.

ENGAGE 21^ST CONSIDERATIONS:

The EMP works to achieve the community vision and corporate goals around environmental focus established in the Town of Markham’s strategic plan, Engage 21^st Century Markham. In addition, the EMP will help inform Markham’s next strategic planning process by providing priority environmental initiatives, performance measures, monitoring and reporting.

BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:

CAO’s Office

Corporate Services Commission

Development Services Commission

RECOMMENDED BY:

Victoria McGrath Manager, Environmental Leadership

Jim Sales, Commissioner Community and Fire Services

ATTACHMENTS:

Appendix 1 – Environmental Management Plan Final Report

Q:\Strategic Services\Shared Data\Environmental Leadership\Reports\2006 Reports\EMP Final Report to GC 6 12 06.doc